Unofficial news and tips about Google

October 11, 2011

Google+ Photos Replaces Picasa Web in the Navigation Bar

This is really weird. The "photos" link from Google's navigation bar no longer sends you to Picasa Web Albums if you're logged in. Google decided to send users to the Photos section from Google+ which shows photos from your circles, photos from your Android phone, photos you've been tagged in and your list of Picasa Web albums.

You can still go to Picasa Web Albums, but you have to bookmark the old URL or manually type it in the address bar. Google+ Photos lacks many of the features from Picasa Web Albums: Picnik integration, batch editing, entering an album description, ordering prints, creating album maps, moving photos to a different album and more. The interface is more user friendly, but it's not yet a full-fledged photo sharing app.

I agree! This was a very bad move for Google to confuse and mess it up for all of us. Why on this earth did they screw up what has been so user friendly and helpful for all of us? It seems like somebody gets a idea for themselves and forces implementation by a sneeky and tricky way... come on Google, stop inviting bad comments like you see here by leaving the normal and simple and easy to use program we all already know alone.

Well I am running the leaked Google + app from ICS* on my xoom and i see under accounts the option to sync both google photos, and picasa web albums. image: https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-HxBwfvEOP7U/TpQ0WTndIII/AAAAAAAAbGQ/SE0dRGpqhek/s912/IMG_20111011_131703.jpg

You can only view your own pictures however not anyone else's you are friends with. It takes you to Google Plus-- I guess this is their way of forcing us to Google Plus for them to compete with Facebook.. GUESS WHAT FLICKR is looking really good! I want albums that I can see and not this cluster(*(*( on Google plus!

They are probably still available somewhere. However, unless the service is advertised as such you shouldn't treat it as a backup service. Surely you didn't upload photos to Picasa and then delete the originals?

Agreed with David, this may mean that Google will merge the funcionalities of Picasa to Google+ photos. Althought I also agree with GP Checkpoint, they should have firs implemented the features and THEN changed the link.

this is really stupid, especially given that "social networking" sites as Facebook or Google + are receiving more and more criticism for the threats such form of networking itself poses to human privacy. So new users of G+ are not coming,FB is still strong, but even they are losing users due to privacy concerns (or simply lack of profound interest in such activity), so Google thinks it good idea to FORCE people to use their social networking site?? Well, this can be the first step for many people to part from Google services (maybe with exception of the search engine). I hope they will NEVER force gmail users to start G+ profiles, or otherwise this really good mail service will falter, as it's used both for private and professional goals, and it might be embarassing for a professional to use email associated with social site. Also, there is no problem with creating multiple Gmail accounts, while it's allowed to create SINGLE G+ profile per person.

Thought I was crazy when this happened. I was actually editing a photo. Went to Picasa via the link, went back to Google+, clicked the Photos link again, and was taken to Google+ photos. I must have spent a good 3-5 minutes trying to figure out what I'd done wrong before finally giving up.

Either way, Google should have improved Google+'s photo editing abilities first, and then changed the link.

I pretty Much hate this. I total understand that google's biggest problem for years has been product integration. But this is just to far from being ready and the only people it is affecting is people who were already using picasa .Why isn't there an option to switch back...

and this will lead more and more people to part themselves with Google, which I find unfortunate; this company is known for being a reliable and good service provider for many, it would be truly a pity if they lost this image for some social site that will become useless in few years anyway (as all other social networking sites, eg. Facebook is losing its popularity, too, as did MySpace and other sites like that).

I do not like this at all. fyi, You can no longer give my others permission to edit a Picasa web album. That functionality appear to have been killed as a result of G+. So now when 'collaborating' on a vacation album both participants have to be in the same room. A definite step backwards.

I can't share my albums with non google+ members whether i send the album link from google+ or from Picasa Web. Does anyone know how to get around this? I paid for extra storage to use this as my main photo clearinghouse. Very frustrating.

I completely agree.....I hate the new integration to Google +. I don't think that Google was ready to make this switch - I just want the Picasa Web Albums back they way it was. Normally I am excited about the changes Google makes, but this is not one of them! I used Picasa Web Albums to share photos with family and friends, and now you can't download a full album on Google +.....among other problems.

I HATE the switch from Picasa albums to Google+! I've lost some important functions, including embedding an album into a website. If I am able to do this, it's not easy to figure out how. Really frustrated. Is there a way to switch back to Picasa??

Does anybody know whether you can share the photos by email. I wasn't able to send link although 2 email addresses had been set. Can anybody help? The photo application seems quite smudged, it's not as easy and user friendly to get around!

I have Picasa 3, I have Picasaweb albums. I don't use a Google toolbar. I don't use Chrome. All my functionality is unchanged. I did not sign up to the changes 18 months ago but kept my original login and ID+password.

Picasa has not gone to Google +, it's still there. I have a tab on my homepage which clicks onto Picasaweb albums (Firefox). I can't see integration any time soon for G+ and Picasa.

I am getting more and more Frustrated by changes in Googles Systems. First they kill Google Notebook after I had put a considerable amount of effort in. Now Picassa Web Albums are more and more difficult to access... I tried the Google+ photos just now but basically I can't even seem to "download" a picuture from there to enclose in a simple email.

I am not going to Keep wasting my time on all this.. Frustrating that my phone seems linked to Google+ but I am not linked to it very well otherwise.

I was concidering using google+ creative kit as a replacment for picnik, but when I send pics from picasa to google+ and edit them, there is no provision to send them back to picasa to be viewed there. Has anyone found a way to do this?

First google ruined youtube by forcing us to create a gmail account , then they ruined our youtube accounts by forcing their new updated stupid page layouts down our throats and now picasa web is redirecting to google plus everytime i click on a picture. The idiot at google who is ruining everything should be loked up away from society where he can no longer cause any harm.

Also dislike very much. Google+ is hard enough for me to understand (and I work with computers), let alone my baby son's grandparents. I don't have time to mess around with another social networking site. I just want to share some pictures with granny.

I actually just logged in to purchase 80 GB of storage for a large photo collection backup on picasawab, but if I can no longer sync to picasaweb then I guess I won't be buying that storage. If they are moving away from PicasaWeb, then I can't trust that it will always be there...

Are there any other EASY sync grandparent-friendly alternatives out there?

I've been using Picasa for years. I pay for storage. I used to love that you could easily find your friends (e.g. followers) on the right hand side. Then they hid everybody, making it a hassle. And now this G+ CRAPPP!

I joined G+. I allowed linking to Picasa. Then I realized how much I had lost since:1 - G+ has a CRAPPY CRAPPY interface. OMG!2 - all my friends links now go straight to the crappy interface.3 - commenting messed up4 - editing messed up5 - MY links, even when copied straight, go to G+. No, I wanted to send Mom to PICASA if I copy a PICASA address/6 - No way to undo or change any of this, unless...

You cancel G+.

So I did, I canceled G+. Well done Google, your promotion convinced an early G+ adopter to CANCEL. Oh, and I've informed all of my friends, and guess what, some of them are canceling too.

Cancelling improved things dramatically, for now, since I now (sometimes) get linked to my friend's Picasa straight, and mine get linked straight too. But highly annoying is that I cannot link to my "following" people's Picasa accounts - THOSE LINKS GO TO G+. GODDAMMIT!!!

I'm one of those people who 'lost dozens of photos, vanished, not on Picasa, so blamed myself for doing something wrong? It turned out they had been snatched by Google +, and all turned up yesterday in a file I knew nothing about, I like Google, I worship my friend GOOGLE, but feel put out by the fact all these photos have been lost for months, with me thinking I was to blame in some way. My love for Google is 100%, but II do want to transfer all these photos back to Picasa, Anyone know how it can be accomplished?

This change over occurred when I installed Picasa 3.9 on a new system, and now all my albums have lost their sync setting. This is in addition to the fact there is less functionality on G+ than on Picasa (anyone worked our how to change the album cover in G+? Had to go to Picasaweb to do it.) Been using Google for over 14 years. This is the worst they've screwed up. Let me choose whether I want my web albums link going to Picasa of G+ photos, PLEASE.

This is a very BAD move for Google. I teach a computer class for senior citizens. It takes long time for them to learn Facebook. I don't want to teach them another social network G+. But I want to teach them how to share photos with friends. Any other good photo sharing tools ?

This change is really bad. I embed slideshows in several blogs, and also post Picasa Web Albums on Google+ too. Forcing users to Google+ photos without the option to use Picasa Web Albums is really inconsiderate.

Now to get photos onto Picasa Web Albums I need to 1) export from Picasa to resize, 2) create an Picasa Web Album, 3) upload the photos.

Add one more loyal picasa user to the batch of people who think that google royally fucked up with the move to google+. I pay google for online storage. Google hasn't even bothered to respond to this thread of rants. I've heard that Google is hyper-focused on G+ but when they start jacking up paying customers, they have their heads up their asses. I shall now look for an alternative to picasa. There are lots of cool options out there these days

I totally agree.My fencing friend tried to share the album during the practice. She had a problem to share a Picasa album with me so had to share through Google+. Then the link, even though it says Picasa Web, redirect me to Google+ which lacks of many features mentioned in the article. I couldn't download my pictures in Googl+. I had to spend 30 minutes to find to see the pictures in Picasa. There are other lives than SNS in internet.

I've been using Picasa and Google apps for years. A friend tried to go to one of my albums and instead of the link taking him to it, it 1) gave him a screen that wanted him to open a Picasa account and 2) steered him to G+. I went to check it out and got the same thing. I am NOT happy with this change. G+ has very little functionality other than just showing pictures and I use the "number of views" count to help me determine which photos are worth making prints for sale. G+ has no counts visible. Bad move, Google!

Is anyone at Google even viewing these comments? or taking notice?I just don't understand how a company this big can allow something that has issues with it released...and then say they are going to work on it....or are they?

Okay, so I'm not insane then. That's good to know. I was trying to figure out what the heck happened to my Picasa Web album upload! Now I know, and I am canceling my Google+ account in about one minute...what a bad move on their part...

This is really poor show from Google, users can no longer view in slideshow, massive backwards step over picasa web ablums. This was the main reason I liked picasa so much. If this doesn't change soon then I'm off elsewhere.

Can't find in Picasa Web Albums the "link to this photo" option on the right hand side anymore, why can't Google stop trying to compete with Facebook, they've already lost the battle, why can't they get over it and quit making us pay for their mistakes and bad moves. I'm giving them another few weeks to resolve these problems before I stop the payment for the extra storage on Picasa.

Google are getting to big for the shoes. I am sick and tired of them telling us how we should be doing things. I am not a fan of Google+ as it does not even come close to doing what I want and all it does is promote Google and forces people to use them. I will be searching for and alternative and bin the lot from Google.

Thank goodness they got something right. I was able to delete Google+ and am now back to normal. This was a terrible decision to force this garbage on us. I can only hope they leave Picasa alone and not at some point force us to use garbage. My level of trust is damaged.

I have paid for Picasa web photo storage for years. I tried Google+ which I liked fine, except it forced you to change the way pictures work. These should be independent - my paid picture storage should have nothing to do with social media. Anyway, I cancelled my G+ so it would work normally, but I am getting concerned that eventually that will not be enough. I guess I will look into mobile me or another service.

I had pictures of my designs there since 2005 and they are all gone. I pay them extra for memory but they are not of people. Now what? I hate them. They suck at social media. I hear that they ask people at google what they think only that is what a google employee told me that they are the testers so that is why. Very select group. How many jewelry designers work there? I loved google and picasa. I hate ti now. I never use google plus. It suggests to me what I should post. How stupid is that? Wow this is what everyone is talking about...lame. Back to the point but I AM LIVID. If I don't have it bookmarked and I pay for extra memory can I get my photos back under my email I have lots of them. I am really really upset. IN fact I have been crying about this. Before i could get them now it is just people pictures so I can tag people then they have to see my whole album...yes show everyone my whole life maybe there are some things I don't want to share google. On facebook I can decide not on google plus. I really thought google was great once not anymore and I have an android now rendered useless. I guess it's apple for me. Out of control apps on it. I can't take it getting way too much spam and texts and stuff that i nver got on iphone. Google has lost its way but I HAVCW LOST MY LIFE!

Well after reading all the posts its evident that Google has ruined Picasa and there's no fix coming. After years of enjoying Picasa web its time to dump it and use Flick instead. OK, so I used Picasa for free, but would have paid to keep the old album system. Now I'll gladly pay Flick for a pro account. You lose double time Google. So sad you ruined a good thing.

I agree with all of the above comments. It's SO annoying when someone sends you an album of photos and you have to sit there clicking through each one in order to download when via picasa web you can download the album directly to your picasa. I cancelled my G+ account about a month ago and I don't regret it at all.

Yeah, that's a missing function, I have to click on the photo to see any label. If people don't complain Google will never fix it. In use of the app I found more stuff wrong, even more annoying:

Since I only have a few albums and have only now started my profile I had no real troubles until yesterday. I uploaded a bunch of photos from Impress, the good slideshow app on Ubuntu's repo (I really love Impress but its too big to email an entire slideshow) and I need to find a web-linked slideshow app like the good one Picasa had for a new Google+ album. Looked thru the G+ album and gee whiz there are dark squares WHERE SOME PHOTOS HAD BEEN in the album. Then I tried the slide show. Appears to be MISSING PHOTOS, but not the same ones that were missing from the album! They are still in there somewhere because the labels and text are still there, the photo is missing. My error or not, that's not supposed to happen, and certainly G+ isn't functioning as it should. I won't be able to use Google+ for albums until they fix that.

Yes the G+ photo situtation is bad. And ruining a pretty solid Picasa platform is bad too. But whining over having to "bookmark" your old picasa gateway to regain access to your seemingly lost pics is pretty lame. At least we can now get to our pics and move them. I hope google fixes this mess but in the meantime i hope people post better solutions and suggestions and not whiny tantrums.

Google you are really screwing this experience up. I am almost 40yrs old and I dont care to use a social networking service like facebook or any of the other fad alternative. I just want to share pictures which use to be brilliantly integrated in picasa. I just learned picasa links direct the recipient to my google+ profile! Why are you forcing this behavior on users. This is a major regression!

Ok, calm down - see if they screwed Drive up....

You guys have done so many brilliant things over the years but Im slowly seeing how I will likely be a supporter of other services....Ubuntu ONE here I come to explore more of your features

In the past I uploaded my videos of my kids to web album to safeguard them. They are now stuck in google+ and not playable. I lost the originals so google has essentially thrown away my videos because they are just pics in google+. HELP PLEASE.

Ditto to the above! I just wasted hours trying to work out what was going on after you insisted I move to g+. After I uploaded some photos from Picasa 3.9 there was nothing to tell me that you have changed the link from Picasa to something else - if you change stuff tell us what's going on! And if you must change the program at least replace it with a better one not an inferior version. Google, either fix Photos or put back the link to Picasa - a much better program imo! Why have 2 photo programs anyway??